Twitter Kicks Off Birdwatch Pilot to Get Community’s Help in Spotting Misinformation

Twitter Monday officially introduced Birdwatch, a U.S.-only pilot of a community-driven approach to tackling misinformation on the platform. Vice president of product Keith Coleman explained in a blog post, “People come to Twitter to stay informed, and they want credible information to help them do so. We apply labels and add context to tweets, but we don't want to limit efforts to circumstances where something breaks our rules or receives widespread public attention. We also want to broaden the range of voices that are part of tackling this problem, and we believe a community-driven approach can help.” The pilot will initially be available to a small group in the U.S., and those interested can apply here. Participants in Birdwatch will identify what they believe to be misleading information in tweets and write notes that provide informative context. These notes will only be visible on the Birdwatch site during the initial phase of the pilot, and other participants will be able to rate the helpfulness of those notes. Coleman said the eventual goal is to make those notes visible directly on tweets for the global Twitter audiences, “when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors,” adding that for now, the priority is on building out Birdwatch and gaining confidence that the context it produces is helpful and appropriate. Notes on Birdwatch will not have any effect on the way users see tweets or recommendations by Twitter’s systems. Coleman also outlined steps that are being implemented to ensure transparency in Birdwatch: All data contributed to Birdwatch will be publicly available and downloadable in TSV files.As Twitter develops algorithms that power Birdwatch, such as reputation and consensus systems, it will publish the code publicly in the Birdwatch Guide. On that note, the initial ranking system is available here. He added that Twitter hopes these transparency measures enables experts, researchers and the public to analyze Birdwatch and identify opportunities or flaws in the platform. Coleman wrote, “We know there are a number of challenges toward building a community-driven system like this—from making it resistant to manipulation attempts to ensuring that it isn’t dominated by a simple majority or biased based on its distribution of contributors. We’ll be focused on these things throughout the pilot … We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying.” Jeffry Severts, co-founder and executive director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change, said in a statement, “The Center for RISC is excited to be collaborating with Twitter on the Birdwatch pilot, helping to develop an innovative new approach to tackling online misleading information. It’s a challenging problem, and we hope that our team’s expertise in behavioral economics and other disciplines can help build a community-driven solution that makes a real impact.”

Platforms

Twitter Kicks Off Birdwatch Pilot to Get Community’s Help in Spotting Misinformation

A small group of users in the US will provide informative context on tweets, which will initially be available only via the dedicated site

David Cohen

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

David Cohen